Deo Gloria
November 23-24, 2022
Sermon for Thanksgiving
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Deuteronomy 8:10-18
Theme: Be Careful Not to Forget the LORD your God!
“Now, be sure to eat your vegetables, Mark. And be sure to get your rest. And don’t forget to brush your teeth. And be careful driving on those slippery roads. And if you start feeling tired, just pull over at the next rest area and take a little break. And don’t forget to call when get there. And don’t forget: we love you!” Did your mom ever say things like that to you as you were heading off to school or maybe as you were getting ready to head back to school after a holiday visit? I know mine did. That’s just the way moms are. They’re concerned about their children. They want what’s best for them. They want them to stay healthy. They want them to stay safe, so they often remind them of things that are important, things they should be careful not to forget.
This evening/morning we hear Moses playing the part of mom. His “children” are the Children of Israel. He’s been their leader for the past 40 years. During that time he had developed a close relationship with them. In some ways he looked at them the same way a mother looks at her children. He loved the Children of Israel and was very concerned about them. He felt responsible for them even when they did what was wrong. He had to discipline them at times. At times he became so frustrated he wanted to pull his hair out. He had to teach them over and over again and admonish them and encourage them as they were growing up and maturing. But now their relationship was coming to an end. Soon they were going to moving into their new home, the promised land of Canaan; but Moses would not be going with them. Because of his own sin, Moses would be staying behind and would only get to see the promised land from a distance. Before they parted company, though, Moses spoke to the Children of Israel and offered them some words of encouragement. Like any good mother he reminded them of things that were important, things they should be careful not to forget. And at top of the list was the Lord their God. “Be careful,” he says. “Be careful not to forget the LORD your God!”
Why? “Well, take a look at what he’s done for you,” Moses says. “For starters, he is the one who delivered you from slavery in Egypt.”
When you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.(vv. 12-14)
They and their parents and their grandparents had been slaves in Egypt. Not middle class working families, not lower middle class, not residents of a housing project living on government subsidy—they had been slaves. No rights, no freedoms, no health insurance, no Social Security—nothing. They were used and abused and oppressed and mistreated. And they had no hope of ever regaining their freedom. Slavery was their way of life, and there was nothing they could do to change it.
But the LORD their God had rescued them from slavery. With his mighty power he had broken the power of Pharaoh and convinced him to let his people go. He had set them free from slavery and had brought them out of Egypt. He had given them their freedom and made them a free and independent nation. This isn’t something they had accomplished on their own by their own strength or their own power. The LORD their God had done it for them.
Likewise the LORD had provided for them and sustained them during their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Let’s be honest, they would have died out there in that “vast and dreadful desert,” as Moses calls it. Have you ever been to the desert Southwest? Have you ever been to a place like Death Valley? How long do you think you could survive in a place like that? A week? Two weeks? Maybe a month? How about for 40 years? There’s no way you could survive—not unless someone brought you a regular supply of food and water. The Children of Israel would have died in the desert unless the LORD their God had provided for them, unless he had supplied them with food and water. And that’s exactly what he did. He did provide water for them—from rocks at times. He did provide food for them—manna in the morning and quail at night. Every day for 40 years the LORD their God had provided for them.
And he would continue to do so in the future, in their new home in the land of Canaan. In fact, Moses describes in glowing detail some of the rich and bountiful blessings the LORD would bestow on them in the future: fine houses, large herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, an abundance of food, an ample supply of silver and gold. When all of that happened and they were enjoying such wonderful prosperity, they might be tempted to take the credit for it themselves. They might be tempted to say, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me”(v. 17). But Moses reminds them where such blessings really come from. They come from their good and gracious God. “So don’t forget,” he says. “Be careful not to forget the LORD your God.”
That’s a good reminder for us too, isn’t it? What Moses said to the Children of Israel more than 3,000 years ago he could just as well be saying to you and me today. We too need to be careful not to forget the LORD our God. I mean, look at all he’s done for us. Like the Children of Israel we too were slaves, slaves to a cruel and evil tyrant called the devil. And like the Children of Israel we too had no hope of ever getting free. There was nothing we could do. We were helpless. We were hopeless. We were doomed to live in misery forever.
But the LORD our God had mercy on us. In love he sent his own Son to rescue us, to be our Deliverer. And by his suffering and death on the cross, Jesus did exactly that. He delivered us. He broke the power of Satan and set us free from his control. He gave us freedom, freedom to live our lives for him now and freedom to live with him forever in heaven.
But that isn’t all he has done. Like the Children of Israel the LORD our God has provided for us and sustained us over the years. No, maybe he hasn’t given us manna from heaven or water from a rock; but he has provided everything we need. Some of us know what it’s like in the desert. We’ve been through some tough times in our lives, times when money was scarce and food was scarce and we weren’t too sure how we were going to make it. But we also know how faithfully the LORD our God provided. He didn’t let us down. He didn’t let us starve. He helped us through those “desert years” and saw to it that we always had enough.
On the other hand, there may be some of us who really don’t know what it’s like, who have never had to struggle through those difficult years in the “desert.” All we know are the years of plenty. All we know are the fine houses and the large herds and flocks. All we know is a freezer full of food and an ample supply of silver and gold. All we know is a three car garage and a pool out back. All we know is a herd of snowmobiles and 4-wheelers. All we know is Playstation and Nintendo and iPhones and computers. The LORD our God has been so good to us. He has given us so much more than just the daily necessities. Perhaps with inflation being so high and the economy struggling a bit we’re starting to realize how good we really had it. And the truth is, even though we may be struggling now, in comparison to the rest of the world we still are wealthy.
I ran across some interesting statistics a while back, stats that made me stop and think:
- If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of hunger, you are better off than 500 million people around the world.
- If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and your own bed to sleep in, you are richer than 75% of the people in the world.
- If you have money in the bank, money in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthiest people.
- If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million people around the world who will not survive to the end of this week.
Yes, God has been very good to us. He has given us blessing on top of blessing on top of blessing. Would it be right, then, for us to take him and his blessings for granted? Would it be right for us to forget about him? Of course not. It wouldn’t be right at all. But it can be awfully easy, can’t it? As we sit in our nice, comfortable homes; as we sit around the table and enjoy a sumptuous meal of turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy and pumpkin pie; as we relax in our family room in front of our big screen TV, it can be very easy for our hearts to swell with pride. It can be so easy to fall into that line of thinking that says we did it all. It was our hard work. It was our strength. It was our skill that provided all of these things for us. And soon we forget what Moses says in the last verse of our text: “But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth”(v. 18).
I don’t know about you, but when I look around and see all the blessings I have and then I read these words that Moses spoke to the Children of Israel, I feel about this big. I feel like a heel because I know there have been times when I have taken God’s blessings for granted. I know there have been times when I patted myself on the back and commended myself for all of my hard work. I know there have been times when I took the credit and forgot about the LORD our God. Same thing true of you? Won’t you join me tonight/this morning? Won’t you join me in confessing our sinful pride, our selfish ingratitude, our taking God and his blessings for granted? Let’s confess our sins and ask for God’s forgiveness, that he would wash them all away in the blood of Jesus Christ our Savior. And then let’s ask him to give us new hearts as well, hearts that are thankful for his blessings, hearts that appreciate those blessings and express their gratitude on a daily basis, hearts that remember where our blessings come from and praise the LORD our God for them.
If you’re anything like me, you don’t remember everything you should. Sometimes you forget. You may forget about an assignment at school, for example. You may forget about a doctor’s appointment. You may forget to record a check in your checkbook. You may forget to pick up more milk at the store. But one thing you and I cannot afford to forget on Thanksgiving Day or any day is the encouragement Moses gives us here in Deuteronomy, ch. 8. Be careful not to forget the LORD your God. Amen.